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| The Rubber Boa, Charina bottae (Blainville, 1835). This snake ranges from southwest British Colombia, Canada southward into Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah to southern California. Habitat ranges from alpine meadows and coniferous forests and open woodlands from sea level to 2800 m. Adult size can reach 840 mm. It is a constrictor, feeding on small vertebrates. It burrows, climbs, and swims well. Often found near streams and active at cool temperatures (about 50 degrees F.). |
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| The Rosy Boa, Charnia trivirgata (Cope, 1861). Photographs of a captive specimen from coastal California (top) and a specimen found in desert habitat in San Diego, County, California. Ranges from southern California and Arizona southward into Baja and Sonora, Mexico. Adult maximum size about 1120 mm. The Rosy Boa uses rocky, shrub covered terrain and deserts. It can be active any time of the day. Constricts small vertebrates. Females have litters of 3-14 young in the fall. This snake is also placed in the genus Lichanura, and it may eventually be placed in that genus again. |
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| Ungaliophiids are a collection of small Western Hemisphere constricting snakes that have long been grouped with the Boidae. However, the molecular studies done by Noonan and Chippendale (2006 Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40:347-358) suggest that they belong in this family erected by McDowell in 1987 as a subfamily of the Tropidophiidae (Wood Snakes). The family included Charina, Exiliboa, and Ungaliophis which contain five species that appear to have diverged from the common ancestor with the boids about 70 million years ago. |
